Week 45

Well, gotta tell u, a horrible way to end and begin a new year.  First the Tide plays like a bunch of sissies and then the Tigers gave up the title game they should have won ...would have kept the BCS Championship in the state of Alabama for five years straight.  Even though I was pretty down, our Gulugans are still big Bama supporters.  Each time we go out to the village, the young children gather around us and yell, "Roll Tide!" We have helped bring many converts - to Alabama.  AND KICKOFF IS JUST 7 1/2 MONTHS AWAY!

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 Typical cooking job here.  Boiling up water for hot coco.  This family has a pretty nice brick/stucco home, nice furnishings.  Never-the-less, they don't have anything resembling a kitchen.  Much safer to cook outside, but some do inside.  Because most use charcoal its very dangerous, not just "short term" carbon monoxide poisoning but also other lung diseases with such poor ventilation, plus blackened walls.  One reason why we had the project making the rocket stoves.  If used properly with wood instead of charcoal, they burn 75% less fuel, no poisonous fumes and a cleaner home.  Still, many  are reluctant to change.   

Hope I'm not duplicating myself...this is a gurney lying on the ground outside a local hospital.  Will be used when a family drives a sick family member to the emergency room.  That is mud on the gurney. The family is responsible for physically getting the sick one into a hospital ward or emergency room

 This is Jackfruit - a VERY LARGE and heavy fruit that grows on tree

Looks like the inside of a crab that just been deshelled...but pretty sweet tasting.

 Our Christmas Turkey we told you about...store bought in Kampala...all skin and bones, with pin feathers.  Pam wouldn't even feed it to Big Mama...our adopted cat.

 

Newest member of the Ugandan Chapter of the U of A Alumni Association.   A wife of one of our senior couples. I am so proud of her.

 Our dear friend, Praise, who has cerebral palsy.  She is three years old but weighs about 8 kilograms or 16 pounds.  Praise is so thin because she has difficulty holding down food.  Many from the states have helped bless Praise.  First, the chair was purchased by a donation from a couple in  south Texas.  Then another friend from Bountiful, Utah helped get a fifty pound bag of Atmit from the Church.  (BYU research and dairy has developed a special  formula for this porridge which has just the right amount of vitamins, minerals, milk and grain to nourish  3rd world malnourished children.) Another couple from Laramie Wyoming picked  the bag up in Salt Lake and brought  to their home in Laramie.  My brother Dennis, from Cheyenne, brought it to Africa.  Thanks to all involved for your compassion.  For the first time Praise has been able to hold her food down when she eats the Atmit, making her healthier with each bite.You truly have made a difference to one African family.  Praise's family are not members of our Church.  Like all Humanitarian efforts the Church gets  involved in, it doesn't make any difference who is served, member or not.  Most are NOT members.  

Pam and brother Dennis on the River Nile at the top of Murchson Falls...about a mile hike up the mountain.

Living happily ever after at our couples' conference at Paraa Lodge, Murchison Falls National Park.

 Did a little black Rhino trekking week before last.  Found a family of them.

Each Rhino is watched 24/7.  Largely due to poachers and partly to learn more of their habits.  This guard carries a gun with him.  If he sees an unauthorized person on the sanctuary with a gun, orders are "shoot to kill"...not the Rhino, the person.  They are automatically assumed to be poachers. The rhino horns are prized by the Chinese  for medicinal purposes and as an aphrodisiac.

A few interesting Rhino facts:

There are in only 15 in Uganda 13 of those live in this sanctuary, the other two in the Kampala zoo.  There were once thousands of rhinos in Uganda.  Due to the civil unrest of the 1970's rhinos were poached to extinction.  Prior to the establishment of this sanctuary, the last rhino was seen in 1983 

White rhinos and Black rhinos are the same color...sort of a muddy grey.
The real name for White rhino is Wide rhino because his mouth is wider than the black rhino.  Englishmen from UK got it all screwed up years ago and started calling the Wide rhino the White rhino.  It stuck.  White rhinos are more aggressive than black rhinos

Most of these rhinos were shipped here from Kenya.  The first rhino born in Uganda in 28 years was born 2009...named Obama.
Gestation...16 months.  In the group of rhinos we saw, one of them was ready to deliver in early January.  When she goes into labor, she chases all the other young rhinos - her children - out and they are not allowed back with her until about a year has past.  Females are ready to be on their own when they are eight; males when ten.  We assume extended family watch over them while mother has them ousted.
Max speed...25-35 mph depending on if a rhino is white or black.
Longevity...40-45 years for same reason above. Black rhinos push their young in front of them when feeding (grasses).  White rhinos eat from branches/bushes and the young trail, so they are more apt to be attacked by lions. 

If a rhino gets aggressive, and we got within 20 feet or so of them, our instructions are to head for a tree to climb into or into a thick bush (they have poor eyesight and stay in the open).  So, avoid open areas, unless you can run 35 mph.
Adult White rhino drinks 75 litres of water per day usually from dusk onward.

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You may want to watch this very short video...it carries a number of messages centered around the order in the universe.  If it won't open for you, cut and paste it in your URL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=h60r2HPsiuM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

President Marion G. Romney (1897–1988) of the First Presidency shared the following personal experience regarding the importance of pure motives for doing righteous things:
“About a quarter of a century ago Sister Romney and I moved into a ward in which they were just beginning to build a meetinghouse. The size of the contribution the bishop thought I ought to contribute rather staggered me. I thought it was at least twice as much as he should have asked. However, I had just been called to a rather high Church position, so I couldn’t very well [say no]. Therefore, I said, ‘Well, I will pay it, Bishop, but I will have to pay it in installments because I don’t have the money.’ And so I began to pay. And I paid and paid until I was down to about the last three payments, when, as is my habit, I was reading The Book of Mormon, and came to the scripture which said:
“‘… If a man … giveth a gift … grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.’ (Moroni 7:8.)
“This shocked me because I was out about a thousand dollars. Well, I went on and paid the three installments I had promised to pay, and then I paid several more installments to convince the Lord that I had done it with the right attitude” (“Mother Eve, a Worthy Exemplar,” Relief Society Magazine, Feb. 1968, 84–85).